Your first line of defense in the outdoors.
With more and more people hitting the trails, shredding waves, or catching bonus sprints, skin health is becoming a huge concern—and rightly so. Healthy skin can filter out up to 60-70% of the sun's UV rays1, depending on your skin color, before you protect yourself with sunscreen (which, by the way, you definitely should, regardless of skin color).
But if your skin barrier isn't in good shape, you're at a higher risk. Damaged skin lets more UV rays penetrate deeper, and also allows pathogens, irritants, and pollutants to sneak into your system.
Plus, if you don't protect your skin from the sun, it can seriously diminish your skin barrier function2. This sets off a harmful cycle where your skin becomes increasingly vulnerable to UV damage and your barrier deteriorating.
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Up to 60-70%
Of harmful UVB rays are filtered by a healthy skin barrier1. -
32%
Increase of diagnoses of new invasive melanoma cases in the past decade3.
Over the last decade (2014 – 2024), the number of new invasive melanoma cases diagnosed annually jumped by 32%. This increase is likely due to better detection, more time spent in the sun, and simply more people living longer3.
So at Freaks of Nature we obsess over helping you to build the best natural first-line-of-defense possible, and providing you with the highest performing products to protect it.
Your skin barrier function is largely defined by ❶ your Skin Microbiome, ❷ your Stratum Corneum. Together they act as your natural defense system against environmental stressors.
At Freaks of Nature, we believe the skin microbiome is one of the big unlocks to building a strong skin barrier.
We partnered with Dr. Elsa Jungman, a leading voice in the scientific field of the skin microbiome and lead scientific advisor to Freaks of Nature, to formulate and design our products with the skin microbiome top of mind.
With recent leaps in DNA sequencing, both in cost and speed, we've gained a clearer understanding of the microbiome and its crucial role in our health. As a matter of fact, we've come to realize we are more bacterial than we are human!
100 trillion microbial cells
30 trillion human cells
Think of your skin barrier like your body's armor. The health of your skin's microbiome, which is made up of trillions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, directly impacts how strong and functional this barrier is. These tiny organisms play a big role, helping manage everything from protection to repair. When the balance is right, they're your skin's best defenders. But if harmful bacteria get the upper hand, it could weaken your skin's defenses, making it less effective at protecting you from the elements and injuries.
"For outdoor athletes, skincare extends beyond aesthetics—it's crucial for optimizing skin health to ensure maximum protection across diverse environments. Integrating a biome-focused routine supports the skin barrier effectively, making skincare the least of your concerns while pushing your physical limits."
- Dr. Elsa Jungman.
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The skin's outer layer, the stratum corneum, acts as a protective barrier, akin to a sturdy brick wall, while the skin microbiome resembles a bustling forest right by your doorstep. One crucial interaction between them involves the production of lipids, which serve as the 'cement' holding the stratum corneum together. When balanced, these structures prevent dehydration and provide a natural shield against environmental stressors such as UV rays, pathogens, and pollution.
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When your skin's microbiome balance gets thrown off, it messes with lipid production, weakening the outer layer (stratum corneum) and its protective role. This leaves your skin exposed to UV rays, pathogens, and pollution, making dehydration more common and weakening your skin's resilience. As an athlete constantly outdoors, you're particularly prone to these disruptions.
Sun Exposure
Wind & Cold
Heat & Sweat
Air Quality & Pollution
Water Exposure
Physical Contact & Abrasions
Skincare Products
Diet & Nutrition
Stress & Hormones
Sun Exposure
Cause
Spending long hours under the sun can put your skin at risk by disrupting your skin's microbiome, reducing its diversity and possibly impacting skin health. UV radiation also directly harms skin cells, leading to premature aging and increased risk of skin cancer.
Protection Strategies
Using broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen, wearing protective clothing, and limiting sun exposure during peak intensity hours can help mitigate these effects.
How we formulated for it
Learn more about these ingredients in our formulas that help you protect your skin barrier from sun exposure on our ingredients page.
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Zinc Oxide
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Titanium Dioxide
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Red Algae MAA
Wind & Cold
Cause
Cold, windy conditions can strip moisture from your skin, leading to dryness, cracking, and irritation. The loss of moisture and natural oils (lipids) from the skin compromises your barrier function, making your skin more susceptible to infections and negatively impacting your microbiome balance.
Protection Strategies
Applying protective, moisturizing barriers before exposure and using clothing designed to shield your skin from the elements can reduce wind and cold damage.
How we formulated for it
All of our products include ingredients which aim to rebalance the skin microbiome and in the case of our moisturizer: lock in moisture.
Learn more about these ingredients in our formulas that help you protect your skin barrier from wind & cold exposure on our ingredients page.
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Bacillus Ferment
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Squalane
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Brown Algae
Heat & Sweat
Cause
High temperatures and humidity increase sweat and sebum production, which can lead to clogged pores, poor complexion, and disruptions in the skin microbiome.
Protection Strategies
Staying hydrated, wearing breathable clothing, and practicing proper hygiene (e.g., showering and gently cleansing your skin after sweating) can help manage the effects of heat and humidity.
How we formulated for it
A plant-based water resistance solution to optimize for lightweight, breathable and non-greasy water resistance film former. We formulated all our products with non-comedogenic ingredients to ensure we don't clog any pores.
Learn more about these ingredients in our formulas that help you protect your skin barrier from heat & sweat exposure on our ingredients page.
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Maleated Soybean Oil Glyceryl/Octyldodecanol Esters
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Sr-wasp spider polypeptide-1 oligopeptide-178
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Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Oil
Air Quality & Pollution
Cause
Exposure to pollutants such as smoke, particulate matter, and ozone can lead to oxidative stress, damaging your skin cells and altering your skin microbiome. Pollutants can decrease the diversity of your skin microbiome and increase the abundance of harmful microorganisms.
Protection Strategies
Using topical antioxidants (e.g., vitamin C, E) can help protect your body from harmful molecules called free radicals. Cleansing your skin after exposure to polluted environments can also reduce the impact of air pollutants.
How we formulated for it
We've formulated with the innovative B-Silk, vegan spidersilk, which creates a biofilm on your skin and almost doubles pollution wash-off at 90%.
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Sr-wasp spider polypeptide-1 oligopeptide-178
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Tocopherol
Water Exposure
Cause
Regular exposure to chlorinated water, as found in swimming pools, can disrupt your skin's natural microbiome and degrade your skin barrier, leading to dryness and irritation. Similarly, prolonged exposure to salt water can dehydrate your skin and affect your microbiome as exogenous bacteria can be present on your skin for at least 24hr after ocean water exposure and can remove normal resident bacteria from your skin microbiome.
Protection Strategies
Rinsing the skin with fresh water after water sports and applying a moisturizer can help restore your skin's natural barrier. Using barrier-protecting creams before swimming might also offer protection.
How we formulated for it
We've formulated with the innovative B-Silk, vegan spidersilk, which creates a biofilm on the skin to protect the skin microbiome from environmental stressors as well as a plant-based water resistance film to create a barrier between your skin and the water. Our post-biotic bacillus ferment helps balance your skin microbiome after water exposure and our squalane hydrates deep into your skin.
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Sr-wasp spider polypeptide-1 oligopeptide-178
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Maleated Soybean Oil Glyceryl/Octyldodecanol Esters
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Bacillus Ferment
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Squalane
Physical Contact & Abrasions
Cause
Sports that involve running, cycling, or tight-fitting equipment can cause friction against your skin, leading to blisters, chafing, and abrasions. These injuries disrupt your skin's surface, making it more susceptible to infection and altering the local microbiome. Outdoor sports such as surfing, climbing, trail biking, and trail running involve physical collisions and impacts that can cause cuts, bruises, and open wounds. Such injuries provide a direct pathway for pathogens to enter your skin and disturb your microbial balance.
Protection Strategies
To maintain healthy skin as an outdoor athlete, use protective gear, apply proper technique to minimize skin contact, follow a skin care regimen that includes gentle cleansing and moisturizing, promptly treat wounds to prevent infection, and allow for adequate rest and recovery time for skin injuries.
How we formulated for it
Watch this space…
Freaks of Nature is currently developing a series of products for cuts, scrapes and skin repairs. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know about new product launches.
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Coming Fall 2025
Targeting Products
Coming Fall 2025
Coming Fall 2025
Skincare Products
Cause
As an athlete, you should be careful with skincare products that could harm your skin barrier. Products with ingredients like harsh alcohols or fragrances, overusing exfoliants, or those that clog pores with comedogenic substances can all be problematic. Also, make sure you're using enough sun protection and choosing products that match your specific skin type. Neglecting these aspects can lead to dryness, irritation, acne, and increased sensitivity, all of which compromise the health and function of your skin barrier.
Protection Strategies
It's crucial to choose the right skincare products to maintain a healthy skin barrier. Moisturizers can balance and strengthen your skin, especially in harsh conditions, while squalane increases hydration—important as you lose moisture through sweat. Use mineral, broad-spectrum sunscreen to shield against UVA and UVB rays, and gentle cleansers to keep your skin's natural oils balanced. Antioxidant serums with vitamins C and E fend off environmental damage. Oat oils help soothe the skin, and omega fatty acids boost your skin's elasticity and moisture retention. Opt for products tailored to your skin type to enhance its health and resilience.
How we formulated for it
We've formulated our products to strengthen and protect athlete's skin barriers by optimizing for the health and balance of your skin microbiome.
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Zinc Oxide (non-nano)
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Bacillus Ferment
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Squalane
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Plukenetia Volubilis Seed Oil
Diet & Nutrition
Cause
As an athlete, if your diet is high in protein but low in fats and carbohydrates, you might be missing out on essential fatty acids and antioxidants, which are crucial for maintaining skin hydration and barrier function. Over-relying on supplements, not drinking enough water, and poor nutrient timing around your workouts can also hurt your skin health, leaving it more vulnerable to damage and environmental stress.
Protection Strategies
Fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6 enhance hydration and can soothe the skin, while vitamins A, C, D, and E promote skin cell growth, repair, and protection against oxidative damage. Additionally, minerals like zinc and elements like probiotics boost skin resilience, and staying hydrated is crucial for maintaining skin health. Avoiding high sugar and refined carbs is also vital to prevent skin conditions and maintain barrier function.
How we formulated for it
This is not an area of focus for Freaks of Nature™ yet. But we will provide useful content in the near future to help you optimize diet & nutrition for your skin barrier.
Targeting Products
Stress & Hormones
Cause
Stress and hormonal fluctuations can disrupt your skin barrier by increasing cortisol levels, which can reduce ceramide production and can lead to dryness and irritation. Imbalanced sebum production can cause acne or dryness, compromising your skin's integrity. Wound healing may be impaired due to cortisol's inhibition of the inflammatory response. Inflammation can worsen existing skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis, affecting an athlete's comfort and performance.
Protection Strategies
Maintaining stress levels, hormonal balance, proper skincare, and healthy lifestyle habits are crucial for supporting your skin barrier as an athlete.
How we formulated for it
This is not an area of focus for Freaks of Nature™ yet. But we will provide you with helpful tips, education and content about the impact of stress & hormones in athletes in the near future.
Targeting Products
While we are laser focussed on the fundamentals of balancing your skin microbiome and building up your skin barrier against environmental stressors, the skin microbiome has the potential to impact processes much deeper than just the skin.
An early 3rd party scientific study5 has for e.g. uncovered that there's a possible direct correlation between increased muscle recovery and a balanced skin microbiome, that your attraction to insects is in part defined by your skin microbiome6, and that the way you smell under your armpits is defined by a finite set of bacteria in your biome7.
As we are committed to removing barriers for you to enjoy the outdoors, look out for future innovations and products from our innovation lab with HelloBiome.
1 The Protective Role of Melanin Against UV Damage in Human Skin. - National Library of Medicine.
2 Role of sunscreen formulation and photostability to protect the biomechanical barrier function of skin - Science Direct.
3 Cancer Facts and Figures 2024. - American Cancer Society.
4 DR. MARTIN BLASER Author of "Missing Microbes".
5 Could The Skin Microbiome Affect Sports Recovery And Performance? - Christopher and Sam Wallen-Russell at Pavane Research Centre.
6. Identification of human skin microbiome odorants that manipulate mosquito landing behavior - Iliano V. Coutinho Abreu, Omid Jamshidi, Robyn Raban, Katayoon Atabakhsh, Joseph A. Merriman & Omar S. Akbari.
7. Mapping axillary microbiota responsible for body odours using a culture-independent approach - Myriam Troccaz,Nadia Gaïa, Sabine Beccucci, Jacques Schrenzel, Isabelle Cayeux, Christian Starkenmann, andVladimir Lazarevic.